Migrant workers around the world have transferred record amounts of money to their home countries in 2018. TASS reported with reference to the World Bank report.
Most of them were transfers to low- and middle-income countries. The figure reached $ 529 billion in 2018 and increased by 9.6 percent — from $ 483 billion in 2017. Globally, the total amount of money transfers, including high-income recipient countries, was $ 689 billion ($ 633 billion in 2017).
According to analysts of the bank, growth is associated primarily with the improvement of the economic situation in the United States and the increase in employment in the country, as well as the restoration of the volume of money transfers from the countries — members of the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Russian Federation. For example, the growth reached 11 percent in the Europe and Central Asia region, and the amount of remittances in 2018 was $ 59 billion.
«The continued growth in economic activity has led to an increase in outflow of funds from Poland, Russia, Spain and the United States, that is, the countries that are the main sources of funds transfers to the region,» the WB says.
Smaller countries in the region, dependent on remittances, such as Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, have benefited from a steady recovery in economic activity in Russia.
The World Bank
A record amount of $ 14 billion was transferred to Ukraine, which is the largest recipient of transfers in the region, growth reached 19 percent compared to 2017," the report says.
